Page 104 of Neighbors With Benefits

A few cheers drifted over from the soccer field, and someone shouted, “Shake it off, Dante!”

I stopped dead in my tracks. Dante? There was no way…

As if my feet had a mind of their own, I walked over to the soccer field. It wasn’t soccer they were playing, though—they were using something similar to a football. They were playing rugby, I realized.

I took a seat in the first row of bleachers and scanned the field. Dante was easy to pick out—he was the one with the ball tucked under his arm, barreling over the other players like they were hardly more than an inconvenience. He reached the end of the field, spiked the ball, then jogged back to the rest of his teammates to celebrate.

One of the opponents he had ran over had a bloody nose. The referee called a timeout so he could be attended to by someone on the sideline.

Hitting people. Bleeding. I guess Dante had been telling the truth about the sport he played.

It was infuriating that he did it in as few words as possible, though.

The woman sitting behind me leaned forward and asked, “Who are you here for?”

“Oh. Um, that one there.” I pointed. “Number twelve.”

Another woman quickly climbed down two rows to sit next to me. “You’re with Dante!”

“He’s so hot!” the first woman said wistfully.

“Dark and brooding!” agreed the other. “You’re so lucky.”

“Oh, I’m not, like,withhim,” I clarified. “He’s just a friend. We’re neighbors.”

“Even better,” the first woman whispered. “I wish Dante lived next door to me. I would let him borrow a cup ofmysugar.”

“Shut up Marlene, you slut!” the second woman teased.

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the exact same thing.”

“I’d be the one knocking on his door asking for sugar,” she replied. “In my nightgown.”

“You’re dating number nineteen.”

“Sure… for now.”

Both of them laughed, but my eyes were still locked onto Dante. The player on the other team with the bloody nose was still being tended to, so Dante and the others walked over to the sideline to get water. His gaze swept across the stands, sliding past me like I wasn’t there.

Then they locked back onto me with surprise.

“Here he comes,” one of the women said.

Dante was grinning by the time he reached us. “Jasmin.”

It still pissed me off that he called me that, but the way he pronounced it sent a shiver up my spine. “Dante. I see you weren’t lying about the kind of sport you play, even if you lied about everything else happening at this address.”

His smirk deepened. “Couldn’t resist fucking with you. Thanks for coming.” He gestured. “Careful around these two ladies. They’re sharks.”

Both women giggled like it was the funniest joke they’d ever heard. “You don’t know the half of it, Dante!” one of them said.

The two of them hopped down and sauntered away, likely to give Dante a view of their short shorts. But he barely glanced at them before turning back to me. He smiled at me a moment longer, then his eyes drifted down to my chest. They remained there a heartbeat before he reached out and brushed the collar of my shirt back, revealing the edge of the corset.

“Little warm out for long sleeves,” he said in a deep, rumbling voice.

I had forgotten all about my hidden wardrobe until that moment. I shivered in spite of the warmth. Dante’s grin remained the same, but there was an intense sparkle in his eyes.

He leaned in close enough for me to feel his hot breath on my collarbone. “It can be our little secret.”

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